David Askevold

The Disorientation Scientist

22 July - 25 September 2011

The Disorientation Scientist is the first UK solo exhibition of work by Canadian artist, David Askevold. From the end of the 1960s to his death in 2008, Askevold was a pioneer in experimental video, sound, photography and text and an influential teacher at some of America’s most celebrated art schools. This survey of his work brings together seminal pieces from the 1970s, his most important installations, documentation of performances and collaborative works he made with artists Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler.

Curated by Anne Pontégnie and organised in association with Le Consortium, Dijon.

“I have at times thought of David’s work as being a kind of Structuralist take on Kenneth Anger’s psychosexual film rituals. Can delirium, while being experienced, be analysed? Wouldn’t doing so disrupt delirium’s seductive, mysterious qualities? Well, Askevold seemed to have his cake and eat it, too. He was a disorientation scientist.” Mike Kelley